Smart Gilas Pilipinas ripped Chinese Taipei for the second time and finished its William Jones Cup campaign in 3rd place overall.

After Iran made an upset last Saturday that ruined Smart Gilas Pilipinas’ chance to vie for the title, the Philippine team faced host country on Sunday to battle for 3rd place. And they won with a score of 82-72 which is good for 3rd place in the just concluded 2011 Jones Cup which was held at the Hsinjhuang stadium in New Taipei City, Taiwan.

The scores:

PHILIPPINES 82 — Douthit 28, Lassiter 16, Hontiveros 13, Barroca 10, Baracael 5, Taulava 5, Aguilar 4, Ababou 0

CHINESE TAIPEI 72 — Chien C. 26, Chen S. 13, Su 9, Lee 6, Chen H. 4, Lu 4, Creighton 3, Chang 2, Ho 2

The quarterscores were: 22-16; 43-34; 62-49; 82-72

This is actually the Philippines’ third time to finish third in the basketball tournament. The first one was in 2005 and the second was in 2007. It’s a one-notch improvement from last year’s 4th place ranking.

However, in the last century, the Philippines was triumphant in the Jones Cup three times! They won the title in 1981 with NCC, also in 1985 with San Miguel Beer and in 1998 with the Centennial Team.

Iran, which was beaten by the Philippine team during the first day of this year’s tournament, ripped Korea in the finals with a score of 66-59 to emerged as the 2011 Jones Cup Champion. The middle eastern country captured the title for the third consecutive year.